Thursday, April 23, 2015

I have been taking a look at the last half a dozen issues of the monthly Australian national level sightings listings which Paul Dean and I are compiling, with the assistance of civilian Australian UAP groups. There are numerous lights in the sky sightings, both visual, and in photographic form. Some are easy to identify, such as aircraft, fireballs, stars and planets, while others are a little more puzzling. In this post, I'd like to share some observations of my own which are similar in content to those in the sightings listing.

1. Formations of lights in the sky:

The UAP group to which I belonged at the time, received a series of half a dozen or so, independent reports of formations of nocturnal lights in the sky. Each report was similar. About 9pm at night, the witness or witnesses would see a formation of white lights in the sky which would suddenly appear at about 30 degrees elevation in the sky. Over a few seconds these formations would travel to about 30 degrees elevation on the opposite side of the sky and then just as suddenly disappear. There was never any noise, and the individual objects in the formations, were of small apparent angular size. The other piece of information I had was that all the sightings were from beach side suburbs of Adelaide.

One night I was visiting a friend at a beach side suburb, and at 9pm we went outside on the off chance that we would also observe a formation of these lights. As luck would have it, we did. The details were the same as for the other observations we had received. However, on this night there was one difference. I had a pair of binoculars with me, so looked at the formation through them. I was able to determine that the cause of the sighting was a formation of birds, reflecting street lights as they flew over at some undetermined height!

2. Flash in the sky:
One morning I was sitting outside on a clear blue sky day. Looking to the north-east, I suddenly saw a brilliant flash of silver light in the sky which lasted about a second, then it was gone. There was nothing in the area where the flash had been, no aircraft, no balloon, nothing but blue sky. My first thought was that it was a daytime reflection from an Iridium satellite. However, when I looked at the predictions for Iridium "flares" I found nothing listed for the day, time and location. Then I looked into Iridium flares a little more closely and found that some of the Iridium satellites are disabled and the prediction services do not list these. So, the best I can say is that the flash in the daytime sky was most likely an old Iridium satellite reflecting sunlight in my direction.

3. Orb in the sky:
One day I was looking at the clear blue sky above the city of Adelaide when my attention was drawn to an object travelling across the sky at a slow rate. It seemed to have a small angular size and was dark in colour. I could not make out a shape. However, through binoculars, I could see that it was a cardboard box! Somehow, a gust of wind must have lifted it into the sky and there it was travelling along.

4. Another orb in the sky:
Recently, I was at a local shopping centre, when my attention was drawn to an object in the sky. It seemed to be reflecting the sun in a cloudless sky. I watched it for a while and had time to photograph it twice before I lost sight of it. When examining the photographs on my computer, I could make out an apparently round, small angular sized, white/silver light. However, there was no way from the photograph that I could have determined what I already knew it was. I had initially seen it at a closer range, and saw that it was a transparent plastic bag of some kind.

Lessons:

The first lesson that I have learnt from the above observations, and others over the years, is that some times it is only with luck that you are able to determine the cause of some sightings. If I hadn't have had access to binoculars at the time of two of the above observations, I would not have been able to say one was a formation of birds and one was a cardboard box. In the case of the plastic bag, if I hadn't seen it at close range, but only had the two photographs to examine, I would not have known it was a plastic bag, simply a mysterious light in the sky.

The second lesson, which I pass on to new investigators, is that you are going to be able to explain some lights in the sky but not others. If, after a while you can't determine a cause for a lights in the sky sighting, then don't waste any more time on it. You are better off spending time on more interesting sightings.

However, it is worth spending a little time on these sorts of sightings, as you get to learn some basic astronomy, some basic meteorology, and some basic investigation skills.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

March 2015 Australian national level sightings listingCompiled by Keith Basterfield and Paul Dean.

This is the sixth in a series of Australian national level sightings listings, gathered from input by Australian civilian UAP groups, and other sources. Many of the reports in the listing have not been investigated and documented.

One of the reasons for the listing, is to draw people's attention to cases of which they might not be aware, and to stimulate them to then investigate and report back to us all. Paul and I would prefer to be publishing only cases which have been investigated, but the lack of investigated and published cases within Australia, would mean we would miss out on so many others. We have therefore chosen to compile as many as possible, with the hope, that over time, most cases we list here will have been investigated.

If you have items for the April 2015 listing, please forward them to keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au by 3 May 2015. Recurrent light phenomena in Tasmania:
A man visited a property in Tasmania which has been the scene of previous unusual light phenomena. At 2040hrs on 20 March 2015, in the company of the two property owners, they brought his attention to a slight glow around the honey box which he thought was just normal light. Then, moving to a rear fence, the owners saw a light and the man tried to approach it. He "...could clearly see a golf ball sized light at 70??metres away sitting at the base of a tree." The man approached the light but lost sight of it. The owners told him "...the light had shrunk to a very small point source as I approached it."
At about 2100hrs, the man "...walked about 40 metres from the owners...and the 6 week old torch I had (with new batteries) started to act weird and the light would go on and off." After walking back, the torch resumed its usual functioning.

At about 2140hrs "...a second light appeared in the air about 2 metres (?) off the ground and about 5 metres to the left of the 'pilot light' which was still sitting at the base of the tree." The three went inside after watching for a while longer.

On the 21 March 2015 at 0610hrs, "I witnessed a light about the size (?) of a basketball (?) appear at approximately 70-100 metres away. It stayed in the air for about 4 seconds. I initially flashed my torch at it with no response from the light, which then moved to the right and I could not see it anymore.""I also placed three game cameras (which work off localised heat sources) and set them to video function as normal. When I picked up the cameras, which had nothing of note on them, I found that two of them were now on still mode."
The man returned to the location on the 26 March. At 2015hrs the "pilot light" was again visible from the front gate. He approached this light but it faded so he returned to the gate. He could then see it again, approached but lost sight of it. The walkie talkie he had with him was working until he was about 100 metres away from the property owners, it started cutting in an out. He moved forward about another 100 metres, and a white light appeared at about 50/70 metres to his left and started flashing on and off. One second on and two seconds off. After about ten seconds another white light appeared about 10-15 metres to the right of the first light and this also turned on and off. After five minutes he returned to the farm. More lights were seen at 2245hrs and also on the following night.
(The above was summarised from a first hand account by the visiting male witness, supplied courtesy of Bill Chalker and TUFOIC. Keith Roberts of TUFOIC has kindly supplied us with a full account on the recurrent light phenomena.)

March reports:2 March 2015 1556hrs Mount Druitt, New South Wales ?minsRaw
Raj Saini took a photograph during a thunderstorm.
ACERN.

2 March 2015 2030hrs Howrah, Hobart, Tasmania Facebook & telephone.
Bright light to north of Mt Wellington. The star like light brightens and fades, plus moves about a bit before descending behind hills. Astronomical.
TUFOIC.5 March 2015 0545hrs Near Wollongong, New South Wales ?mins Raw
"Driving north along Sheepwash Rd heading towards East Bowral and west of Kangaloon...saw a flash lighting of deep blue colour light up the whole east side (left side of car) of the sky for a couple of seconds. At the same time the radio went off and then returned sounds after the blue flash had finished. There was a full moon on the right hand side of the car in the sky. I reported it to the ABC Illawarra radio station to see if anyone else saw it and confirmed what it was...ABC Illawarra confirmed they had an outage for 10 seconds around the same time."http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

5 March 2015 2130hrs Tweed Heads, New South Wales 20mins Raw
Looking north at an elevation of about 45 degrees, Terri saw four medium sized white lights "circling almost dancing" which seemed to be contained in one cloud" on a cloudy night. One was slower than the others. "These lights did not stay in the same spot they moved close in a south direction." They then disappeared.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

8 March 2015 Evening East of Nerang River, Queensland (40-50) secs Raw/IFO?
Witness saw a "..big ball of light" before it faded out. "They then saw something black drop from the object." Seemed only 200 meters up in the air. No sound. No flashing lights. Suspected garbage bag balloon.
UFO Research Queensland.

9 March 2015 ?hrs Safety Bay, Perth, Western Australia 20+mins Personal observation
Amanda Lucks "Just recorded an orange orb over Safety Bay, Wambro Beach from my house in Waikiki. Very bright. Watched for 20+ minutes and it never moved left or right, only faded out. On video. It was flashing with red flashing lights."
Perth UFO Casebook Facebook page.

12 March 2015 2129hrs Newcastle, new South Wales ?mins raw
Adam saw "3 bright orange objects" travelling north. All at different times, but within a couple of minutes of each other. Faster than an aircraft. Burning. On a slight descent.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

13 March 2015 (1830-1900)hrs Greenwood, Perth, Western Australia. ?mins Raw
Greg Ramsden reported seeing "a fire cracker" travel across the sky. He had time to call two other people to watch it. It was lost in the distance. "Slower burning light" than a fireball. "I don't think it was a UFO." Travelled south to north in the eastern sky.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

13 March 2015 2355hrs Apollo Bay, Victoria (2-3)secs Raw
A bright lime-green coloured , object with a tail, was seen at azimuth 200 degrees, elevation 10-15 degrees. It was descending towards the sea. Orange sparks were trailing off it. It blinked out. A similar object was seen at 0036hrs 14 March 2015 by the same observer.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

15 March 2015 1030hrs Canberra, Australian Capital Territory ?mins Raw
A glint of light in the western sky caught the attention of the witness. "A disc shaped object not a long tube with wings" therefore not an aircraft. "Appeared to be spinning or pulsing." Moved slowly. "I often see objects like this in the area from time to time." Sunny day with intermittent cloud cover.
MUFON case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

17 March 2015 1930hrs Dural, Sydney, New South Wales 10mins Raw
Ron reported seeing lights in the sky, "green in the centre red surrounding them quite bright." Seen at 45 degrees north-west. The object was under dark rain clouds. "Moved about in a small area about half a kilometre away in erratic circles and then very slowly move away from this position going north-west till it disappeared 10 minutes later." No sound.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

17March 2015 (1800-1830)hrs Northern Gold Coast, Queensland (3-4) secs Raw
Witness noticed a bright red, pulsating light over the hinterland. It was close to a bright star in the sky. It then made a quick U-turn under the star and stopped close to the star. It then disappeared.
UFO Research Queensland Facebook page.

17 March 2015 2255hrs McDowall, Queensland (3-4)secs Raw
A glowing blue ball was noticed in the eastern sky. It was moving very quickly to the west. Emitted a high intensity light. It was apparently lower than the clouds.
UFO Research Queensland Facebook page.

19 March 2015 2017hrs Ellenbrook, Perth, Western Australia 20mins Raw
John Brown reported looking 45 degrees south, and seeing a "bright red and white flashing light which moved across the sky and then back again before moving out of sight.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

19 March 2015 1930hrs Gorokan, Central Coast, New South Wales ?secs
Josh Elton, 15, and other family members were in their lounge room, when they saw what they thought was a low flying aircraft. "It was swerving all around as we looked out to San Remo..." The 12 second video shows a very bright ball of light crossing a small portion of sky near the horizon. The video is available to view at the link below. The Express Advocate newspaper sent the video to UFOPRSA in Sydney. Dominic McNamara is cited as saying "Flashing lights are normally at a slower frequency, but can sometimes appear to be a revolving object instead...Interestingly, vector diagrams and measurement shows that it appears to change course ever so slightly towards the left of camera as it is about to be lost to sight...In the end it is impossible to say what this is...To date there is no other report of this."http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/ufo-close-encounter-of-an-errie-kind-as-gorokan-family-sees-hovering-sphere-of-light/story-fngr8h0p-1227274218623

19 March 2015 2130hrs Rose Bay, Tasmania 10secs Facebook
Star like light at high elevation, travelling south but after ten seconds seems to fade out. Satellite.
TUFOIC.20 March 2015 0030hrs Wagga, New South Wales
A photograph, showing a light trail in the sky, was submitted.
MUFON Case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

20 March 2015 0200hrs St Leonards, New South Wales ?mins Raw
Two people reported a boat sized rectangular object, hovering just above the water at a distance of 15 metres.
MUFON Case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

22 March 2015 (2130-2200)hrs Patterson Lakes, Melbourne, Victoria ?mins Raw
Ron and two other people were sitting on a balcony, when Ron saw a "red ball of light shoot up from somewhere, guessing in the Dingley, Westal or Springvale area...It started to head in our direction...it nearly flew directly over us...towards the Portsea area...lost sight of it." No flickering, and no sound. After 30 seconds to a minute, another one appeared.http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/ufo-sightings-Melbourne

23March 2015 1952hrs Shelly Beach, Ballina, New South Wales ?mins Raw
A man saw a single, white light travelling north, faster than an aircraft. It was white, round, soundless. It was 10 degree elevation above the ocean. It then reduced in size and appeared to change course from north to east, as it got smaller and slowed, until it disappeared. It appeared to have a smaller light to the rear.
UFO Research New South Wales.

26 March 2015 ?hrs Darwin, Northern Territory 10secs Raw
A bright, lime green light in the sky was seen by 21 year old Yoanna Williams."It slowed right down and disappeared."
Northern Territory News. 30 March 2015.

26 March 2015 2000hrs Eastern freeway, Melbourne, Victoria 30secs Raw
Kylie and her partner saw a "...white object fly horizontally across the sky...It flew behind a cloud for a couple of seconds...it reappeared...continued to fly north/west bound." White colour. Left no trail.http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/ufo-sightings-Melbourne

27 March 2015 Between 2000-2300hrs Long Reef, Sydney, New South Wales Personal observations.
UFORNSW conducted a sky watch and CE5 session. On a clear, starry night a number of observers reported the following:
Mariana - "Two objects briefly moving before fading out and also an extremely bright shooting star travelling east to west."
Damien " I noticed 3 bright lights in a triangular formation at a 35 degree angle from my position...The centre light appeared to have a much smaller spherical light under it..." The lights moved and at one point two merged into one.
Rozainah - Saw three very quick flashes from the corner of her eye towards the south-east. Also something like a smoke trail, very short and lasting a couple of seconds.
John - Saw some flashes of light in the sky. One flashed brighter than other stars and then faded.
Monita - An orange object at 70 degrees seen for 2 seconds.
UFO Research New South Wales.

27 March 2015 1840hrs Gold Coast, Queensland ?mins Raw
Sitting in a backyard, three people observed, overhead, a pulsating "bright ball of light" moving north. "...it was below the cloud line." It then changed direction to move north-east. It was soundless and moved at a constant speed. It finally "...disappeared out of the sky" at an angle of 30 degrees.
MUFON Case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

28 March 2015 0600hrs Perth, Western Australia ?mins Personal observation
Samuel Johnson reported "...a bright orange line shooting down slowly on the horizon east of Perth...it was slow and then started to curve before going behind the hills."
Perth UFO Casebook Facebook page.28 March 2015 2015hrs Baulkham Hills, Sydney, New South Wales 9mins Raw
Damien Nott advises: "This object was seen heading east to west over the city and then did a slow controlled half circle U-turn and then head back east towards Sydney at an upwards angle...seen by two witnesses and caught on two different cameras. On video it can be seen spitting out semi-transparent blobs of what appears to resemble white puffs of plasma like smoke."
Via UFO Research New South Wales.

28 March 2015 2030hrs Ansons Bay Road, Tasmania 60mins Facebook & telephone contact
Two witnesses were returning at about 8.30pm from a shooting trip, when they noticed a large light, low over paddocks. Estimated to be half kilometre or more from the road. They stop to view the light through binoculars and a rifle scope. It appears to be a triangle shape with a dome area above. The colour is a blend of green, red and yellow. Beneath, there seems to be ribbons of coloured light reaching down towards the ground. At this point a loud beep sound was heard and a white light was observed approaching from the south-east. It is only visible for 15 seconds as it performs a quick turn and disappears in the sky.

The witnesses now decide to see if they can approach closer to the light from nearby farm and bush tracks. Due to locked gates they fail to get any closer and after 30 minutes return to the road. The light is still there. They now shine their spotlight (range 350 metres) towards the light and it appears to reflect the light. Almost at once the object looks to move away from the road in a zig zag or circling movement and is soon lost to view. The two witnesses return home to St Helens and say they can still see a fading light, high up ion the sky.

The report was lodged on Facebook (29th March) with follow up by TUFOIC's Northern rep. Phil Polden. Investigation in progress.
TUFOIC.

Older cases:

28 February 2015 2203hrs Hardwicke Bay/Warroka, South Australia ?mins Raw
An individual noted that the wind increased, looked up and saw an object hovering over trees. The object had yellow and orange lights "around it shaped in a disc form." A beam of blue and white light came down from it.
MUFON Case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

28 February 2015 1715hrs Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales 15mins Raw
A "tiny silver dot" was seen in the sky. The witness was facing north, looking up at a 60-70 degrees elevation. It was lost, then found again, at 45 degrees east of the original position, and at 80 degrees elevation. It was slowly moving west, then made a slow right turn to head north. It was lost to sight behind trees/buildings. The sky was clear and blue.http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

9 February 2015 1930hrs Toowoomba/Clifton, Queensland 40mins
"A man was driving from Toowoomba to Clifton when he saw two lights in the sky he thought could be planes. He continued driving but then saw three lights in the sky dipping up and down, so he pulled over to look at them through binoculars.

It was then he could see a shadow with lights around it that had a diffused shape. He continued to drive to Clifton and was outbound on his way to Leyburn when he saw an object with 8 golden yellow lights spinning around it about 25 to 50 meters in front of him, and at tree top level about 10-15 metres above him. The object was silent and the lights gave off no emanations on the surrounding environment. witness described thee lights as "looking like they were suspended in the sky." The witness observed the entire event over a 40 minute period while he travelled about 20 kms at very slow speed. There were two other drivers who he thought would have seen the light too."
UFO Research Queensland.

6 February 2015 2035hrs Sydney, New South Wales ?mins Raw(Reported 12 March 2015.)
Was filming the Moon rise as it was a new full moon, with Aiptek handheld camcorder - no filter on lens - in nigth vision setting. Did not notice the object until playback and in full screen mode. "In playback I noticed an orange globe - but find it hard to get a single frame. managed to capture an image - it was coming and going between frames which made it difficult. I was on the balcony in front of my apartment. In playback the object seemed to be heading straight up and disappear. In the clip it appears at 0.01 at 12 position."
MUFON case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

20 December 2014 2240hrs Logan, Queensland ?secs Raw
An individual was sitting outside, looked up and saw a big white light. It went behind trees and was lost to view. Then, looking straight ahead "something streaked across the sky leaving a mustard yellowish orange streak. It faded in seconds. There was no associated sound.
UFOPRSA "Phenomenon Times." February 2015.

27 October 2014 1637hrs Moonta, South Australia ?mins Raw(Reported 16 March 2015.)
"Taking photos of a storm approaching from NW." Captured something in one of the pictures, it is small. Not in photos before or after. "A few other people around town I mentioned the object to have said they saw something flying in the clouds glowing a red or orange colour that same day." "I didn't notice the object at the time."
MUFON case management system. http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl

7 April 2012 2000hrs Warner, Queensland ?mins
(Reported 12 February 2015.)
"A young man was at a friend's house when they decided to walk to the local shop. They reached a high point on a hill and saw a deep orange dot in the sky. They didn't think anything of it but as they walked a few hundred metres and turned a corner they saw a bus-sized sphere about 50 metres above the road. It had a diameter of 4 metres and was moving silently at about 5km/hr. It appeared to be made of a fire or plasma and an orange/red colour. They heard a man yell "What the ...is that" a girl scream and another girl crying. They watched it move at about 40 to 50 metres then it accelerated to 4/5 times its speed, then disappeared at a 45 degree angle. The object was extremely bright but didn't scatter any ambient light nor did the witness recall seeing it cast any shadows. Even though the light was bright it seemed to cause no harm to their eyes."
UFO Research Queensland.